Goal. Gather more seeds into your store than your opponent. There are 48 seeds — 25 wins.
- Each of your six pits starts with four cowrie shells. The bottom trough is your store; the top one is your opponent's.
- On your turn, tap one of your non-empty pits. Lift all its shells.
- Sow them one per pit, moving counter-clockwise — down your side toward your store and around the board.
- Drop a shell into your own store as you pass it, but skip your opponent's store.
- Extra turn: if your last shell lands in your own store, you play again.
- Capture: if your last shell lands in an empty pit on your own side, you capture that shell and every shell in the opponent pit directly opposite — all into your store.
- The game ends the moment one player's six pits are all empty. The other player sweeps every remaining shell on their side into their store.
- Most shells in your store wins.
A note on the family
Mancala is not one game but a whole family — hundreds of sowing games played across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond for thousands of years, with seeds or cowrie shells in rows of carved pits.
This board plays Kalah, sometimes called “American Mancala” — one common modern ruleset popularised in the 20th century. Cousins like Oware, Bao, and Ouril each have their own rules for sowing and capture.